Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Author: '''Joanna Kathleen Rowling '''Illustrators: '''Thomas Taylor Mary GrandPre '''Genre: '''Fantasy '''Publishers: Bloomsbury Scholastic Raincoast Released: '30th June 1997 ''(UK) 11th September 1998 (US) 'Book Number: '''One '''Chapters: '''17 '''Pages: '''223 ''(UK) 309 (US) '''ISBN: '''0747532699 '''Preceded by: ''None'' Succeeded by: '''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets '''Title in America: '''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Blurb Harry Potter thinks he is an ordinary boy - until he is rescued by a beetle-eyed giant of a man, enrolls at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, learns to play Quidditch and battles Lord Voldemort in a deadly duel. The Reason: HARRY POTTER IS A WIZARD! ''"An amazing setting the scene story that makes you want to read more!" ''- Holly, age 11''' Plot Harry Potter, a scrawny and peaky looking boy who is in the care of family members who want nothing do with him, is in for a big surprise when his 11th birthday rolls around. He travels from place to place with his stubborn uncle Vernon because his uncle does not want him to receive a certain letter that was sent to Harry, which only causes Harry to become exceedingly curious about the letter's contents. Later on, when the Dursleys (Harry's aunt Petunia, uncle Vernon, and cousin Dudley) have dragged harry to stay in a hut on a rock in the middle of a miserably cold and furious lake, Harry is deprived of sleep due to him being forced to sleep on the bumpy, concrete floor under a very thin blanket, his 11th birthday comes as he is counting down the minutes. As soon as it is midnight, he hears a loud pounding on the door when all of a sudden it is knocked off of its hinges. When a giant of a man steps through the door, Harry becomes frightened and runs to hide behind a wall in the hut. When the man enters and introduces himself as Rubeus Hagrid, Harry decides that he seems friendly and comes out into the open. When Rubeus Hagrid, or Hagrid, as he tells Harry to call him, begins to speak of a school called Hogwarts, Harry questions him, and then finally Hagrid explains that Harry is a wizard, and has the potential to become a very powerful one, given his past. This all comes as a shock to young Harry, but when Hagrid performs a piece of magic in order to prove his story to Harry, the young boy decides that he will go with Hagrid to this school, and this is where Harry's adventures begin. When Harry arrives at Hogwarts after a strange encounter with the wandmaker Mr. Ollivander in which he learned of his dark and mysterious past and about the death of his parents and their murderer, and after he is told by Hagrid that he is a very famous young wizard, Harry is nearly sorted into Slytherin house, the house in which everyone has told him bad things about. However, as the Sorting Hat is making its decision, Harry begins to whisper "not Slytherin, not Slytherin", and finally the hat decides to place him in Gryffindor house, a decision that Harry is ecstatic about. As Harry's classes start, he begins to develop a close bond with a red-haired boy whom he met on the Hogwarts express, named Ronald Weasley. Eventually, Ron and Harry begin to realize that a certain teacher whom they despise, Severus Snape, might be after the stone. Later on, after they befriend a girl in their house name Hermione Granger after they defeat a fully grown mountain troll together, they see that Snape is trying to get past the protection placed on the stone by various teachers at hogwarts, they decide to go in after him and try to stop him. They fight through the series of obstacles created by the professors at hogwarts, and when they reach the final obstacle, Hermione instructs Harry to go through the fire by himself to face snape. However, when Harry passes through to the last stage, he encounters the Mirror of Erised, a mirror which he once saw his parents and the rest of his wizarding family in. There he finds not Professor Snape, but none other than the stuttering and nervous Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher Professor Quirrell. After struggling with Quirrell for some time, he finds that the professor has been taken over by the spirit of Lord Voldemort, Harry's worst enemy and the murderer of his parents. Harry proceeds to duel Quirrell to stop voldemort from getting the Stone, which Harry later discovers was in the pocket of his trousers the whole time. At the end of the book, Harry has a talk with the Headmaster, Professor Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, he discovers there are many more dangers that lie ahead in his future. After Harry leaves Hogwarts, his newfound home, aboard the Hogwarts Express, he gets a promise from Ron that he will be spending time at Ron's house this coming summer in order to get away from his bad-spirited and boring muggle relatives. -''written by a Harry Potter fan :) please correct any mistakes! '' Category:Harry Potter novels